


Anything You Can Magic, I Can Science Better

by KimliPan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: FrostIron - Freeform, M/M, Magic vs Science, Reluctant Ally Loki, frostironfest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-21
Updated: 2013-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-05 08:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1091702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KimliPan/pseuds/KimliPan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Loki's holed up as a reluctant ally to the Avengers, Tony makes a bet with Clint that he can get him in bed. He takes Loki out on the town, and while they're spending time together, they come to find themselves getting competitive and curious about each other's science and magic.</p>
<p>A frostironfest gift for <a href="http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/">the-dreaming-grass</a>!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anything You Can Magic, I Can Science Better

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the-dreaming-grass (tumblr)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=the-dreaming-grass+%28tumblr%29).



> This fic is a fill for frostironfest gift request #62 (requested by [the-dreaming-grass](http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/)), and it sort of fuses all three of their prompt's together:
> 
> 1\. Loki inadvertently becomes an ally of the Avengers, even saving them occasionally. Both sides are extremely unhappy about this. Loki adamantly rejects any rumors of redemption while still being forced to aid or work with the Avengers due to a common enemy or whatever reason you think of (just not solely because he’s in lurve with Tony).  
> 2\. Tony decides to hit that (or possibly pursue that with romantic intentions), and he doesn’t go back on his decisions even when they’re really stupid, but all his usual methods completely fail to impress Loki. Tony didn’t expect to have to work so hard for something he isn’t even sure he wants. Then again, he’s not exactly known for backing down from a challenge.  
> 3\. Tony teaches Loki technology; Loki teaches Tony magic.
> 
> With an emphasis on number 3. I hope that's okay!
> 
> Thanks to [SamsJam](http://archiveofourown.org/users/SamsJam) for being my beta reader, and no thanks at all to [chaperoned](http://chaperoned.tumblr.com/) who certainly invested zero time in organizing this whole thing, what a nasty, lazy, miserable mod. (That's a joke, she's amazing.)

“No.”

Loki angled his chin and looked down his nose at Tony, one brow raised in a sharp, questioning arch.  Well, there was intrigue in that response, which only encouraged Tony further.  It wasn’t a solid ‘no’ per say, but a request to be convinced.  Tony could do that.

“Yes,” he said, a bit of his signature Stark smirk kicking up at the corner of his mouth.  Loki pushed Tony back against the wall, fast enough to throw off his balance.

“You overestimate my pleasure at being here, Stark,” Loki urged, though there was a glint of something in his eyes that Tony didn’t quite read as anger. His hand pushed at Tony’s chest, fingers pressing into the sensitive scarring where his arc reactor used to be.

“‘Course, you’re right,” he conceded, resting his head back against the wall. He brought his hands up to Loki’s arm, not trying to pull it off, but ready to if he had reason. “You gotta admit though, you seem pretty smug for someone as miserable as you say.” The hand on his chest relaxed just enough that Tony wasn’t flush against the wall anymore.

“Is it meant to surprise me that you use smugness as a measure of satisfaction?”

Tony cocked his head to the side, flashed his teeth in his best grin. “Isn’t that the only way?” he asked and Loki smirked, stepped back.

“So, what, then?” Loki asked, spreading his knees as he seated himself at the Avengers-only lounge table. “You show me a thing or two about earth, you try and seduce me, and you think to lure me to your side when all this is over?”

“You give me too much credit, Dexter. I’m just looking for a good time.” Not that he particularly thought he would find one with Loki, but he couldn’t stop now, not since he’d opened the offer.

It started with a bet between himself and Clint, that led to Tony asking Loki if he could show him a night on the town.  And perhaps maybe a part of one of his suits was on the line but no one else needed to know that. The fact of the matter was that if Tony succeeded in this bargain, he would finally get Romanoff’s superhero origin story,  _and_ his pride would stay intact.

In all, he let Clint talk him into taking what started out as a joke way too far.

“You cross a line, Stark,” Loki said shortly, though that flicker of non-anger had never quite washed away. Tony decided it was intrigue, and as from the start, he still didn’t believe Loki’s ‘no’ was anything other than a challenge to be convinced.  “What will your teammates think?”

“Dunno,” he answered. “Don’t care. You, me, terrorizing the night scene, tonight.”

Silence. Tony took it as a concession and gave Loki a wink. “Great. I’ll come find you later. Be ready to see--”

Loki cut in with a sharp, “I will join you,” and waved a dismissive hand to send Tony off.

  
  
 

When Tony came to Loki, the villain-come-ally looked bored to hell. He sat slouching with his feet up on the couch, twirling his finger in the air with a swirl of shimmering bluish butterflies comet-tailing the motion.

“That’s normal,” he said, plopping next to him on the seat instead.  “You know, an everyday kinda thing. Magic.”

A glance shot from the corner of his gaze, an eyeroll, and Loki let the butterflies dissolve into nothing as his hand collapsed into his lap. It wasn't strange to see Loki out of his armor, per say. Since he'd been hanging around the tower, he chose to have his off days. Seeing him dressed in something more Earth-liked was the weird bit (a dark button-up, slacks), and Tony couldn't help but blurt out a blunt, "Lookin' good, by the way," which Loki promptly ignored.

“Where I come from, it is,” he said tiredly as he let his feet fall to the floor so he could rise. “Why do you sit when we’re meant to be out?”

Tony slapped his knees and pushed himself up. “That eager to date me, are you?” He pointed to Loki’s hand. “Do the thing again, I wanna see it.”

“No.”

“Your choice,” he said, and gestured for Loki to follow as he left the room.

  


Where do you take a god of chaos on a date? Tony didn’t really know, so he defaulted to his favorites from before Afghanistan.  They stood together at a dance club, and while Tony got drunk, Loki did little more than act annoyed. 

At the point where Tony was ready to fall over, he threw an arm over Loki’s shoulder and pointed to a girl texting on her cell phone.

“Can you change it into a rat or something? Man, wouldn’t that freak her out…”

Loki raised a brow and looked at Tony with that same intrigue that was there before.  “Torment your fellow Midgardians with my villainous magic?” he asked, a clear attempt at disdain as transparent as the cage they’d once put him in. “I can do much more than that, Stark.” He leaned forward toward the girl, twisted his hand only once and her phone was replaced by a mass of spiders crawling up her arm.  The girl screamed and tried to shake it off, but she only sent her phone flying once the illusion vanished.

Tony let out a loud “HA!” and clapped Loki on the back. “Best I can do is send a message cross the screen,” he said with total satisfaction.

“Is that not magic, too?” he asked in a gilded attempt at modesty. “I’d like to see it.”

A whispered “alright” barely made it out of his mouth before he had his own phone out of his pocket, tapping away at the glass screen. “I -- think --” he muttered as he worked at the code and tapped into the networks “-- I can manage -- that -- and --” He lifted the phone and swiped his screen off in the direction of a guy sitting at the bar flirting with a busty blonde. “There.”

The young man checked his phone. His eyes widened and he shoved it back in pocket glance around the room nervously.

“What did you do?” Loki asked.

“Told him his girlfriend’s here.” The concise answer was only to give Tony a moment to preen. He looked to Loki with a drunken grin, hoping to find one in return.

“Ameteur,” was Loki’s reward for him, however. He put a hand on Tony’s shoulder as he pointed at another young woman and combed the air with his fingers in her direction.  Hair began to grow from her upper lip and it became very clear that though she didn’t notice it, the men talking to her did. One guffawed and pointed at her face while the other awkwardly left.

“Really, Legs?” Tony asked, leaning against Loki as he watched the illusion hold while the girl began touching her face.

Loki raised a brow at the nickname.

“Contest. I’m winning,” he said, setting his nose to his phone once more. He stumbled as his attention to standing waned and Loki supported him with an arm round his waist.

Loki watched over his shoulder with his chest pressed against Tony’s back while the blue-and-white lights bounced around on the small screen. A hand snaked around to rest on Tony’s stomach and he held the shorter man against him.

“You act as if your science isn’t magic,” He ran his thumb over the feel of Tony’s firm stomach through his shirt. “It certainly is.”

“That make me Merlin?” he asked, and he looked up and smiled as the music stopped and the speakers began to play classic rock instead of the teachnobeat before it. “Cleverest little shit of a wizard--”

“I don’t know, but I imagine not,” Loki said with a frown. “And I hardly consider this noise to be a victory.” He pressed his lips close to Tony’s ear from behind him and whispered close enough to make Tony feel the gravity in his voice, “I tire of this, let’s go back.”

Tony thought to himself, _Widow, your secrets are mine_ , before turning around drunkenly and allowing Loki to lead him from the club.

“Naked” and “hangover” were not entirely new concepts to Tony Stark. However, the two of them following “a night out with Loki” did shake things up a bit. He held his head, kicked his feet over the side of the bed, and groaned. “Jarvis? Time?” he asked  as he waddled stiffly to the restroom.

_One o’clock, sir. PM._

“Course it is,” he muttered as he tried to get himself together.  He was about to take a piss when the air in the bathroom turned cold and the mirror frosted over with ice.

“Think you’re clever?” Tony asked, grabbing a towel to wrap around his waist. His manhood needed fostering against the frigid air.

“Cleverest little shit of a wizard--”

“Sure are, champ,” Tony said, hurrying back out of the bathroom at the sound of Loki’s voice. “I can do that, too, you know.  Jarvis, heat the bathroom.”

_Of course, sir._

The vents began blasting air and it only took moments for the room to return to comfortable. Loki clucked with what seemed a mixture of non-surprise and satisfaction. “Your computers are a crutch, Stark. Don’t you wish to do your bidding at will?”

“I wish to take my morning piss,” he said, re-entering the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

He emerged wearing pants. By then, Loki was shamelessly examining the bit of tech on the wall that gave Jarvis access to the room, and Tony access to Jarvis. It flashed red when Loki touched it, causing him to frown.

“You wanna try it?” Tony asked, walking over to him.  “Jarvis, give Loki limited control.”

_If I may, sir, that course is not advisable. Mr. Laufeyson is not truly an ally._

“Do it anyway.”

Loki pulled his hand back and raised a brow, side-eyeing the mechanism on the wall as he turned to face Tony. “I’ve no interest in your idle fancies.”

“It’s alright, most old folk don’t like computers much--” Loki let out an indignant _old folk?_ while Tony pressed on, “Easier to learn than you think. Jarvis, holo screen.” A pause. Tony sensed reluctance. “ _Please_.”

The computer gave an audible sigh as he dragged out, _As you wish, sir._

Finally, when the panel opened up, Tony used his hands to broaden it and pointed to a button, told Loki, “There. Press that.”

Loki frowned but complied. The lights turned out, and he let out a huff of irritation. “A lightswitch you have to argue with,” he said. “How novel."

  
  
 

“You _think_ too much about the course,” Loki snapped.

“What else is there to think about?” Tony argued back, forgetting instantly everything Loki told him about relaxing. “It doesn’t make _sense._ How can I _make_ energy?” He picked the candle Loki was trying to teach him to light from the table and pointed at Loki with it, opening his mouth to speak.

But Loki snatched the candle to slap it back on the table, and he took away Tony’s chance to speak by telling him, “ _End result._ Just imagine the _end result._ You’re doing it _wrong._ ” Impatience had overtaken him, but Tony was hardly much better.

“Yeah, well, you’re not exactly a great teacher,” Tony muttered in response, knocking the candle on its side with the backs of his fingers.

“Says the man who expected me to ogle his ability to teach me a _lightswitch._ ”

“I was _trying_ to get you used to the panel! And since when do you use lights, anyway? Don’t you just wander around in darkness? To be fair, I assumed you’d never even used a lot of your own accord, and-”

“Clever, Stark. Very clever.” His lip curled, and Tony knew he was losing. “I suppose that does make you Merlin. A Merlin without magic. Useless. Is that why you need your crutch?”

Tony just laughed. He saw no point in pursuing the argument, so he took away its power, asked Loki, “I thought you didn’t know who he was.”

“Yes, well, contrary to what you may think, I’ve learned enough about computers to _google_ things. Not so incredible as commanding the lights, I’m sure, but it’s _something_.”

Whatever Loki expected him to do, Tony just smiled. He held his arms out as if for a hug, and told him, “I’ve never been more proud of someone,” while Loki just flicked his finger and used a magical force to keep him back at least three feet. They were both smirking. 

“Yeah, but did you _sleep_ with him?” Clint asked, resting his weight against the table Tony ate his toast at. “That was part of the deal. You gotta do that.”

“Define _sleeping with him_ ,” Tony said, raising his coffee without quite drinking it. “Does it require _remembering_? Is there an _I drank too much_ loophole? An _I’m pretty sure it happened but I have no proof_ kind of clause?”

“No,” Clint said, stepping back. “Doesn’t count.”  He crossed his arms over his chest, and as if it hadn’t quite hit him till now, he wrinkled his nose and reeled back in shocked disgust. “ _Really?_ You actually went _through_ with it?” He cringed, shaking his head.

There was a sigh from the other side of the room and Loki sauntered in. “Yes. _Really._ Now what was your end of the wager, Barton?” Tony smirked. He wasn’t sure if Loki was defending his honor or trying to debase it, but either way, Clint’s recoil was rather satisfying.

“Origin story. Natasha Romanoff.” Loki looked as if he were about to comment, but Tony went on, “Don’t want your version of it, Legs.”  He slid over and Loki took the seat beside him, looking up at Clint expectantly.

“Well,” he said plaintively.  “Pay up.”


End file.
